📺 live on FanDuel Sports Network Florida
📍 Quality Arena in Parts Unknown, FL
A recap of last week's main event opened the show, the video package highlighting the Republic winning a six person tag and officially welcoming Pyotr Caviar into the fold only to have Orion and a kendo stick crash the party; they literally drew first blood on Malicía Fernandez ahead of their National championship rematch next week. Things ended with the Republic swearing vengeance from the floor while Orion, Nazir el-Fadal and Razorblade held down the ring with weapons in hand.
Another hot Friday night in Parts Unknown that had nothing to do with the humidity outside. Inside Quality Arena nearly a thousand strong were psyched for another high stakes episode of Ruckus. Steve Vandeblanche and Carl Christensen welcomed us to the show and hyped up a special look at 2022’s AnIIversary as well as Omar Littlefield defending the World championship - but tonight's action would start with another defense of World titles.
Lights off.
Lights on.
Hysteria. Literally. QCW’s resident coven held down the ring ahead of the arrival of their opponents and ex allies; the referee had to hold Luz Cruz and the Women's World champion “Night Sky* Diana Spare back before the lights dimmed down to a single spotlight on “the Voice of QCW” Duck Eko, who made introductions for our World Tag Team titles opener.
1. Bonnie Agrippa and Nancy Crowley of Hysteria [c, w/Justine Danek and Bella Jolie] d. Women's World champion “Night Sky” Diana Spare and Luz Cruz to retain the QCW World Tag Team championships at 10:25 Fun, hard hitting TV match that saw the champs retain to keep the Era of Hysteria rolling along; they’ve been holding gold 80+% of the time since last summer. Spare started the match for her side but demanded she get to open against leader Agrippa, who readily accepted the challenge. An early stalemate turned into a fight that the Women's World champion ended up ahead on before stomping a cackling Bonnie down in a neutral corner and nearly having to be pulled off by the referee. (Shoutout to Carl’s deadpan “I don't think these gals like each other, Stevearino” watching this play out.) Spare tagged in Cruz before sending Agrippa into the ropes and alley ooping Cruz into a dropkick so high she could almost touch the overhead rig before laying out Bonnie with it. That got Cruz a nearfall but it didn't stop Luz from lighting into the woman who’d taken control of Hysteria away from her for the next few beats of the match. Bonnie’s mocking laughter came to an end quick as Luz reached into her lucha libre bag of tricks, sending Agrippa to the floor after landing a springboard dropkick. Justine and Bella looked concerned and headed over towards Nancy as Cruz got on the hop and went for a signature step up tope con hilo - only for Bonnie to catch Cruz by the legs and swing her viciously headfirst into the retaining barrier before adding injury to injury by swinging her into the steel steps.
Agrippa dragged Cruz closer to the Hysteria side of the ring, then rolled in to break up the count and tagged in Crowley. The Feral Nancy climbed to the middle rope before pivoting to face the floor and flying off with a suicide senton that crushed Cruz’s rib cage like a slipper coming down on a cockroach. As you probably guessed, the replays started flying while Luz desperately tried to keep all her Internal organs that way. Nancy slowly drew herself to her feet before scaring the crap out of the cameraman by getting right in the lens and alternating guttural wordless noise with babbling before flashing a sick grin. Crowley bundled up Luz and tossed her into the ring before following up with a Code Black; Luz may’ve been a little fortunate to escape at 2¾. Crowley worked over Luz a little more before tagging Bonnie back in, and the two of them combined on a double gourdbuster that got another nearfall, this time for Bonnie. As Bonnie kept beating on Cruz, Steve pointed out we were seeing everything that made Hysteria dangerous and the champs: they played mind games before the match, they had numbers on the outside, and they had the in ring skills to run any division they set their evil minds to. Bonnie unleashed her fury over the next few moments and buried Spare under a flurry of flash elbows before doing a throat slash across Diana’s neck, then called for the end. Agrippa hit two rolling suplexes before tagging in Nancy to finish off their former friend with a trademark spike brainbuster – but Diana suddenly slipped free and shoved Bonnie into Nancy, sending Crowley bouncing off the apron to the floor and Agrippa hung out to dry between the ropes. The crowd clapped along with Luz as Spare managed to do a couple of rolls before tagging Luz to a solid pop from the Quality Controllers.
Cruz wasted no time sprinting across the ring and leaping off Bonnie's back to hit Bonnie on the floor with a corkscrew plancha, Steve freaking out over the crispness of the tornillo. Luz tossed Crowley back in and leveled her with a springboard dropkick, then followed up by running up the ropes to connect with a tornado DDT; Crowley managed a kick out late. Cruz hit some rapid fire kicks on Crowley before doubling her over and giving Nancy a taste of her own medicine with a Code Red. This got Justine and Bella on the apron in protest but Cruz dropkicked Danek down to the floor, then dropkicked Jolie into the fallen Justine. Crowley tried to sneak up on Cruz and finish things with Bite Me, but Luz held onto the buckles to send Nancy flying backwards before putting the super in superkick. Before Nancy could drop, Luz snatched her up and took her to Widow’s Peak with a vicious looking Gory Especial neckbreaker. Nancy was too weak to get her shoulders off the mat…but her lower body had enough to drape a leg on the bottom rope at 2.8 and save the titles for Hysteria much to the chagrin of the crowd.
If you can believe it, the titles match broke down even further from there as Justine and Bella tried to pull Nancy from the ring only to get caught by the ref. The zebra wound up and ejected them to a pop, and when they wouldn't leave on their own called for the referee corps to remove them from ringside. Justine and Diana traded a few words as they were being escorted out, leading to a shoving match the refs had to try and break up - and with all the attention on the floor, it gave Bonnie perfect cover to wallop Luz in the face with one of the championships before rolling out of the ring and hiding. Nancy crawled over and barely got an arm over Cruz, causing Steve to scream “Not like this, damnit! Not like this l!” as the count came down…only for Diana to slide in and pull Crowley off at 2.9 to another roar from the crowd. Spare picked up Nancy by the face and began to threaten her when Bonnie grabbed Diana by the legs and pulled her out to the floor. Spare sent Agrippa back first into the barricade and seemed to be setting up for Nightfall only for Bonnie to slip out the back door and shove Diana face first into the ringpost so hard Spare’s body went limp after making impact, another case of steel conquering flesh. FDSNF showed “Night Sky” bleeding from the head before panning up to the ring, where a clearly rattled Crowley wobbled to the corner and tagged in Agrippa. The damage had been done to Diana and now it would be done to Luz, as the champs laid out their former leader with a spike brainbuster and as they have so many times this year used it to win the match and retain the gold.
Crowd booed the fact that Hysteria had barely escaped by the skin of their teeth, but you know Bonnie and Nancy didn't care about that - they held up their belts in defiance before we got to replays, Carl putting over Nancy as the match’s MVP even if he didn't like her tactics. Back live, Justine and Bella came back out and celebrated with their coven on the ramp amongst the boos. Nancy and Bonnie made sure to get their titles right up in the lens before Agrippa dropped hers a little bit to hiss “Best - tag team - in the world!”
We had a This Week In QCW History segment that took us back to September 4th, 1994 and the debut of one “Superstar” Scott Holmes to a warm reception from the fans; by the following summer he'd be getting “Superfraud!” chants. In the modern age, most fans and wrestlers agree he’s doing super as Commissioner.
2. “Zaddy Longlegs” Cole Grant (w/”Fahrenheit” Freddie Valsada) d. Hawk Carter at 8:18 Fun fact: since this was his first singles match since the time limit draw with Valsada that led to the Glam Squad forming, this was Cole’s first singles win in QCW over the bigger Carter. Hawk took an early advantage but the turning point came when QCW’s resident cowboy missed a corner charge and flew shoulder first into the ringpost. He staggered out of the corner Grant was going up the turnbuckles in before flying off the top rope with a super bulldog that crumpled Hawk. Grant put on a showcase from there and won with a superkick to the delight of Freddie on the floor; they celebrated up the ramp and Ruckus went to commercials.
Back from break and to one of the skyboxes in Quality Arena, where Naomi Lee had a live interview with Beast Mode. The crowd shouted up boos at them but Roy Fade and Lolo Vuitton were egging them right back while Pierce Moore merely looked nauseated. Naomi asked them why they interfered in Tre Boyd’s match on last week's show and Roy said he was tired of the Boyd hype when he and his squad were standing right here holding it down for years before Sky’s the Limit showed up. “These Hands” continued, saying that if the fly boys wanted to try and step on his turf then he'd get grimy and ain’t nobody in the building wanted that. Lolo cackled before taking over, saying that everybody knew next week Beast Mode was going to clown Tre and his sidekick Kam, they were already on the struggle bus and running out of gas. But it wasn't just the pretty boys holding it down because it was past time gold was back in her life. If Diana Spare was done losing and pretending, the real best Women's World champion of all time would take her property back at the biggest show in company history - who else could the #1 contender be but her? Respect and championships would be put on their names and they were done waiting. Now they were going to take all the turns. They told Lee to go find somebody else to bother so they could have their champagnes in peace; a seething Naomi threw things to Duck in the ring, who made the ring introductions for the next match up…
3. John Arneson d. Evan O'Neill (w/the All Starr Stable) at 10:09 This rivalry was born in QCW’s sister company in the Pacific Northwest, where the always abrasive O’Neill never took Arneson seriously due to his size even when they were trading the Evergreen Wrestling League title; their feud escalated until a EWL title loser leaves town match that Arneson won, sending O’Neill towards QCW and the Stable. Arneson came out of the gate hot looking to shrink O’Neill down to size with some buzzsaw kicks to the thigh before battering the Oracle of Off-Book down with some old school Mongolian chips. But his run of offensive success hit a brick wall disguised as a big boot, and if there's one thing Evan O'Neill is going to do, it's exploit an opportunity. Evan worked over John through both force and malice, repeatedly using as much of the referee's five count as he could to choke the Cold-Forged Hammer with his boot if not his bare hands. Even when Arneson managed a brief rally, the former World Tag Team champion put paid to it with a Stun Gun that set up a slingshot spear - still, Arneson managed to shoulder up at 2¾. Arneson 's narrow survival just made Evan turn up the torque on another barrage of offense. After splattering John with a powerbomb, Evan pulled him into the drop zone before coming off the top to finish him off with his trademark One Last Chance, but Arneson knew all too well the horrors of that senton elbow drop and managed to roll out of harm's way at the death. O’Neill was trying to get his wits about him as he peeled himself off the mat but Arneson outsmarted him by scooping him up with an Oklahoma roll that just barely but successfully got him the three count and kept his undefeated streak in QCW rolling on.
O’Neill handled this as well as you might expect, jumping Arneson from behind before FDSN Florida could even fire off any replays, and with some quick help from Prince Ootsuka and “Upper Class” Broderick Palmer II it didn't take long for the Iron Dwarf to be on the wrong side of a 3 on 1 beatdown. The Stable looked to be setting up John for a big double team maneuver when the crowd suddenly converted jeers to cheers as Ashok Banjerjee and Jacques Krieger ran down the ramp to keep the Stable from any further bullying. In only a few short seconds the random assortment of babyfaces had cleared the ring of the Stable, and while the bad guys fumed on the floor over their plans being ruined John thanked Ashok and Jacques for having his back.
Before we hit another commercial break a video package flashed back to AnIIversary in ‘22 where Autumn Powers beat Summer Rose to retain the Women's World championship to force Rose to leave town (we haven't seen Summer since and for that matter we haven't seen Autumn since last year's AnnIVersary), the Game Changers won the World Tag Team championships, and the show ended with the infamous Naz belt toss after he beat Razorblade to regain the World title in his Last Stand and the Match of the Year.
4. The Chosen (“the Purifier” Caleb Gray, “the Righteous” Justice Davis and “the Paragon” Drake Tremble w/the End Times and Goody Gardner) d. Anton Stahl and the Wonderful Ward Brothers at 8:04 We came back from commercials right into six man action to kick off the back half of Ruckus, action that saw the newest iteration of the Chosen best three former champions in Stahl and the Wards. The babyfaces acquitted themselves well early on, and there was some awkwardness between JD and Tremble that continued unfolding as the match went on. The Chosen used the power advantage they had over the technical trio they were up against to first get and then keep the upper hand. As Goody Gardner rooted them on from ringside - especially Justice - QCW’s resident zealots got the duke. Caleb only interjected in a couple of spots to keep things flowing his team’s way and it led to the finish: Justice looked to be putting the finishing touches on the fight with Rich Ward lined up to eat his Busiaku knee, but Tremble tagged himself in and drilled Rich with the Halo Effect to get the pin while Caleb and Justice fended off Anton and Jason the Great to secure the win. The Chosen hit their group cross pose in celebration post match and all yelled “Faith over fear!”... everyone except for Davis, who was glaring a bit at a smirking Drake and didn't see Goody looking with concern at him.
Carl noted the weirdness from the desk but brought up his championship winning past before also noting that wins had a way of papering over any rough spots. As Steve was putting over the win streak that the Chosen were putting together since adding the reluctant acolyte Davis, the lights went out in Quality Arena. The Qualitron 9004 whirred to life and showed all four women of Hysteria in a dark room while purple and white tulip lights swung overhead. Justine and Bella talked briefly about being avenged before Nancy Crowley added to it, saying they were avenged by the best tag team in the damn world, as those Hysteria rejects Luz and Diana found out earlier. Bonnie Agrippa stepped forward from the darkness with a death grip on the QCW World Tag Team championshipship in her hand and said that as much fun as tonight's win was, the biggest show in QCW history wouldn't be complete without her and Nancy defending their titles and shutting up more haters - and she had just the victims in mind. She was tired of hearing the Undaunted run their yaps, so she and Nancy would shut them up at AnniVersary if they had the balls. Undaunted. Hysteria. QCW World Tag Team championships on the line…champions vs. champions. The Tron cut to black and the lights came back on to the crowd buzzing and Steve hyping a potential landmark tag titles match for the PPV before we had some more tag action in our semi main…
5. Hellraisers d. The Proper Villains at 8:41 Problems continued for the Villains, who lost to their QCW & Catch Hell rivals the Hellraisers when some timely dodging from Gerry Greene led to “the Fury” Jim Jaspers accidentally flying into his partner “the Proper King” Richard Windsor, sending Windsor flying off the apron and into the retaining barrier. Richard managed to recover but glowered at Jim from the floor the rest of the match, standing by passively while the black hats turned things into essentially a handicap match Windsor felt fine watching like he was in the cheap seats instead of in the match. The cohesive ‘Raisers put an outmatched Jim away after their To Hell With You deadlift German suplex x Supernaut flying lariat combo.
Before we headed to break we saw Robert E. Moonshine pump up his partner “Swamp Pride” Ted Holland ahead of the World title main event and they exchanged a three step handshake before leaving their locker room; two slightly somehow familiar shadows were on the wall a few beats behind them a few seconds later.
What's to come on 💫 next week's Ruckus? 💫 Steve's glad you asked! We’ll jump back in time two years to take a special look at AnnIIIversary • Catch Hell Wrestling League tag team champions the Undaunted make their QCW debuts against the Chosen's End Times • and next week's main event will be Malicía/Orion III for the National championship…but this week's main event with the World title on the line is right now.
Ghaiz Guevara's “The Old Guard Is Dead” fired up over the PA to bring out the controversial World champion Omar Littlefield, his patron Ig de Catur and the rest of the Republic along with their personal security. Carl couldn't keep the bike out of his voice when he said that for someone his size, the last thing Littlefield needed was to be surrounded by a dozen hired goons whether or not he had the champion’s prerogative to come out first. As Guevara's song faded, it was replaced by the dulcet tones of “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” replaced it to bring out crowd favorite and perennial underdog “Swamp Pride” Ted Holland and his tag partner Robert E. Moonshine. As the Qualitron 9004 remained open, Holland broke out into an evil grin as he and Robert gestured towards the back for someone to come forward, Actually, that turned out to be someones plural, as the rolling fog parted to reveal first Orion and then Mason “Razorblade” Savage to massive pops from the QCW faithful while the Republic fumed over the surprise special guest stars. The announce hyped up Holland making the playing field more level for the biggest match of his career and put over Orion and Razorblade for having his back while also throwing shade at Nazir el-Fadal for not being here to lend a hand. We got the same sort of specialized championship lighting we did for the opener but Omar spent the whole time he was being intro’d complaining to the ref about Orion and Razorblade’s presence even as he handed over the belt and the bell rang, allowing Ted to land an immediate shotgun dropkick that wobbled Omar and got our main event underway with hope in the air…
6. Omar Littlefield [c, w/Ig de Catur, the Republic and Republic Enforcement] d. “Swamp Pride” Ted Holland (w/Robert E. Moonshine, Orion and Mason “Razorblade” Savage) to retain the QCW World championship at 11:11 …but no Cinderfella story to be had here. Sorry. In Ted’s defense he threw everything and the kitchen sink at Omar. Littlefield couldn't get a hold on Holland for nearly the first two minutes as Ted out on a stick and more clinic, going to the second and even top rope for shoulder blocks when the standard issue ones wouldn't budge the land monster from up north. Unfortunately for Ted it only took two moves for Omar to send him to the floor, where he proceeded to beat Ted like a rented goalie; the itinerary included hard throws into the retaining barrier, a press drop into the steps and a throw onto the announce table (which didn't give, possibly making things worse for Holland). A growling Omar tossed Ted into the ring before splattering him with a Pounce but Ted managed to kick out even if it was at 2.9. Orion, Razorblade and Robert pounded the apron to try to rally Ted, which drew the attention of Republic Enforcement. Omar paid the outside business no mind and hit a World’s Strongest Slam before setting up and delivering a Vader Bomb. The words between REnforcement and the babyfaces started turning into shoves from the gray shirts, who picked a fight with three wrestlers and got treated like red shirts despite having a 2:1 advantage. This got Ig on the apron full of self righteous anger, with Malicía and Pyotr’s attempts to talk him down falling on dead ears. As the referee was demanding they all return to the floor, Moonshine surprised everyone by getting to the top rope and connecting with a flying lariat. This only pissed off the rest of the Republic even further, which further just pissed off the referee and kept their focus on getting them completely off the apron - completely missing Orion and Razorblade sliding into the ring and connecting on a leg lariat HiLo that wiped Omar out right before they slid back out of the ring and threw their voices in support of the referee’s warning. Seeing an opportunity, Ted slowly made his way to the top rope and made sure to balance himself before flying off and connecting with a diving headbutt. Ted pinned Omar's shoulders to the canvas and the referee spun around to get down for the count – but Omar practically bench pressed Red off before it could even get to 2½. Ted looked a little panicked but quickly called for the end and tried to get the World championship by connecting with a Doctor Bomb he calls Before the Fall; Omar made it winter real quick by lariating Ted so hard he came out of one of his short boots. Omar showed Ted how champions did it by picking up the limp Holland and dropping him with his trademark Face Eraser DDT and not only won the match but made the zebra count to 5 on the pinfall. Sorry, Ted.
But things didn't end there, as REnforcement landed some post match cheap shots on Orion, Razorblade and Robert while Omar made the ref one up Ted by lariating the poor zebra out of both of their shoes. It didn't take long for the Republic to get the upper hand on the smaller babyfaces, as titles went flying into foreheads to leave the ring looking like the plot of a mortuary. Omar used the Fifteen Pounds of Gold to take a chunk out of Razorblade’s forehead while the much smaller Orion and Robert were no match for land mobsters Fernandez and Caviar While the Republic played a deeply unfun game of Finisher Bingo on the babyfaces, Ig demanded and got the mic from Duck. He shouted over the boos, saying that in a few short weeks AnniVersary would take place in this very ring and he had a special announcement for the main event.
He’d put together the finest personal army money could buy, so come the last Sunday of the month they were going to go to war and secure the Commissionership for him once and for all. In Quality Arena - the house he built - he was bringing his newest invention to Parts Unknown in the form of not just a steel cage but a chamber with four holding cells that would break bones, she's blood and crush the spirit of anyone foolish enough to stand in for Holmes. He dubbed his newest invention the LockUp match and made it clear why he felt like he had nothing to worry about: he had the future of QCW with Pyotr Caviar, the gold standard of National champions in Malicía Fernandez and of course his personal wrecking ball the #AndSTILL World Heavyweight champion Omar Littlefield – if this pathetic resistance was the best Holmes could provide for opposition then at AnniVersary Ig’s conquest of QCW would be complete…and he’d put the Superstar in the ground right next to his sorry ass daddy.
That tore it for Holmes, who parted the Tron and odds be damned sprinted towards the ring looking to beat some respect into Ig…only for Omar to Pounce him so hard when he hit the end of the ramp that Holmes went flying into the steps head first. A loud clang was heard and he fell awkwardly and limply to the floor, causing gasps and some super sized “ASSHOLE!” chants from the usually lawful good Quality Controllers. With their opposition absolutely wiped out all around them in and out of the ring, Ig made sure to gather his forces on the apron over Holmes’ fallen body before letting out a screechy “Long live the Republic!” to further inflame the faithful. “The Old Guard Is Dead” played Ruckus off the air while Steve worried that with all that firepower - and Lord help us if so - we were three weekends away from the official coronation of Emperor de Catur.
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